Just as Nikki Finke “TOLDJA” almost four months ago, Oscar-nominee Natalie Portman has been tapped for Marvel’s Thor, in which she’ll play love interest to the Norse god-turned-superhero. No stranger to comic book adaptations nor to reworkings of Scandinavian properties, the actress will play “Jane Foster,” a nurse who becomes Thor’s love interest when the “powerful but arrogant warrior” is banished to Earth by his fellow Asgardians. So far, Portman remains the sole household name cast in the movie, which stars Chris Hemsworth as the title hero, Tom Hiddleston as the villainous Loki and Brian Blessed as Thor’s father, Odin. Fellow Oscar-nominee Kenneth Branagh is directing.

The former child actress follows in the tradition of well-known but questionably talented starlets playing uninteresting love interests in comic book adaptations: Kim Basinger in Batman; Katie Holmes in Batman Begins; Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight; Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Man movies; and Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man. To me, Portman seems like a cross between the last two actresses. She’s done the “manic pixie dream girl” thing like Dunst, but she’s a little more high class, a la Paltrow. Marvel claims they’re updating the Foster character for the film, which is good considering few comic enthusiasts even know or care much about her, but it still seems likely Portman may actually have less to do in this movie than she did in The Darjeeling Limited (not including the Hotel Chevalier prologue).

Personally, I think Branagh should have hired Maia Brewton for the role, especially now that people are re-watching Parker Lewis Can’t Lose on DVD. Sure, she hasn’t been around in awhile, and it would be stunt casting, but I always prefer stunt casting to bad casting.

Check out some other film blog responses to the casting after the jump:

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There will be sequels to both Star Trek and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Not only are these now officially greenlit, but they’re also what we call “likely sequels” prior to their certainty — meaning we all saw them coming way before Paramount and Fox, respectively, announced them. However, it’s not necessarily a given that a successful movie will always spawn a follow-up. For example, box office record-holder Titanic could never become a franchise.

Of course, people will always joke about the possibilities for a Titanic sequel, and that kind of humor is what makes the Twitter meme #unlikelysequels so entertaining. Unfortunately, 140 characters allows for little more than a proposed sequel title (and yes, “Titanic 2: Jack’s Back” is among them), so we have decided to expand on ten favorites by providing the synopsis and, for some, casting suggestions.
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Just how much money will the new Star Trek movie make? That’s a question a lot of people are asking today, as we enter the reboot’s opening weekend with favorable reviews and a successful Thursday night (estimates show it made $7 million from advance screenings). Here’s how I put it into perspective: the only Trek installment I ever saw in the theater is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which is the only film in the franchise to gross more than $100 million. And now I’m planning to see J.J. Abrams’ movie, at least to see if it’s actually that much better and cooler than the rest of the franchise. And I think there are a lot of other people out there who are just as curious as I am.

That people are predicting this thing to make nearly as much money in its first week as Voyage Home earned in total should be more ridiculous an idea than it is. However, rebooted franchises, like Halloween and Friday the 13th have previously surprised us with relatively huge openings, so it’s not terribly unlikely that Star Trek could gross at least $100 million by Monday morning. Then again, without the appeal of humpback whales and a modern day setting…

Let’s see what the other bloggers have to say after the jump:

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Though the third Fast and the Furious installment, Tokyo Drift, wasn’t a huge box office disappointment with its $63 million domestic gross, it was significantly less successful than its predecessors, The Fast and the Furious ($145 million) and 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127 million). A fourth film would normally see an even bigger drop in box office receipts, but next week’s Fast & Furious has a good chance of actually being the highest-grossing film in the series yet, due to the return of original cast members Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordanna Brewster and, most importantly, Vin Diesel.

With the expectation that Fast & Furious will be enough of a hit to save the franchise, we take a look at ten other films that similarly kept their respective series going, either because of an increase in profits or a surprising increase in quality, following one or many disappointing installments.
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I have always tried to maintain low expectations for Hollywood product in general. But when it comes to highly anticipated movies, particularly blockbuster sequels to popular sci-fi action franchises, my excitement can get the best of me. Whenever I need to calm down my expectations, though, I simply recall all the disappointments of 1997 (Alien Resurrection, The Lost World, the Star Wars Special Edition), and I can get through the hype pretty safely. Considering I’m one of the few who actually loved both Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and (yes, even) McG’s Charlie’s Angels movies, it’s hard for me to believe that I’m also one of the few who isn’t now expecting Terminator Salvation to be the second coming of Christ The Terminator after watching the new trailer (embedded below).

Sure, Christian Bale could very well be a lucky charm to franchise reboots (though does anyone believe this will be even a tenth as good as Batman Begins?) and T4 could easily be better than rival summer blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (though “easily” is an understatement, because Transformer 2 will suck just as bad as Transformers 1). But with two and a half months left until the movie opens, it’s just too early for us to be going so ga-ga over one piece of marketing. The only thing left to happen now is a backlash, which I guess I’m sort of starting right now?

Here’s a sample of the most extreme gushing to hit the blogosphere since the trailer’s premiere last night:

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The fanboys are so serious about The Dark Knight being the best film of 2008 that if the Academy snubs the comic-book adaptation for a Best Picture nomination, they’re liable to storm the Kodak Theatre on February 22 in protest. But why should anyone be worried that it won’t get the nomination? It wouldn’t be much of a coup for the year’s top-grossing blockbuster to be named one of the five Best Picture candidates. In fact, since the very first Academy Awards, the top award has often been handed out to films that were #1 at the box office in their respective year. And the last time it happened was as recent as 2003, with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Thanks to popular and talented filmmakers like D.W. Griffith, Walt Disney, David Lean and Steven Spielberg, it’s hardly uncommon for films to make money and earn critical respect. But this isn’t an opportunity to spotlight overrated top-grossing Best Pictures like Titanic, Rain Man and Rocky, which were decidedly not their year’s best films. Rather, this is a chance to ease the minds of fanboys just in case The Dark Knight doesn’t get the nod. Some of these blockbusters were indeed nominated for Best Picture, and a few even won the award, but some of them were both their year’s biggest moneymaker (in the U.S.) and best film (from the U.S.) without gaining proper Academy recognition.

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Last week, Entertainment Weekly confirmed with Warner Bros. that the studio would be campaigning for a nomination for Heath Ledger specifically in the supporting actor category, putting to rest all the speculation and suggestions that he could contend for the Best Actor Oscar. Now all the awards pundits seem to agree that Ledger is a definite lock for a posthumous nomination. As for The Dark Knight’s hopes for other categories, though, it’s still up in the air as to how many nominations the comic book movie might garner.

While its predecessor, Batman Begins, only received one Oscar nomination, for Wally Pfister’s cinematography, there’s at least some likelihood that The Dark Knight could be recognized in as many as a dozen categories. That’s about as many as it’s legitimately eligible for, anyway, and in a year that keeps looking slimmer and slimmer in terms of Oscar-worthy pictures, there’s no reason to completely deny The Dark Knight’s full capability. Unfortunately, it’s a popular genre picture, so regardless of how critically acclaimed it is, and regardless of how the Academy has historically lauded similar titles, there will be a lot of doubt and debate concerning this movie’s prospects all the way up until January 22, when the nominations are announced.

Yesterday, John Foote of In Contention, commented on the increasing chances of The Dark Knight in such a lackluster Oscar season. In some ways, though, it’s not just about onetime Oscar hopefuls turning out to be hopeless; it’s also the constant problem of so much Oscar bait being held away from viewers and voters until the last possible second. Even those films that end up being fairly good can be disappointments after so much premature awards season hype. Sure, audiences have short attention spans and typically a film released midyear is easily forgotten by voting time, but a movie as memorable, as successful and as well-made as The Dark Knight can come out in the summer and easily be in the forefront of voters’ minds as an easy and deserving fallback. Therefore so many Oscar bloggers shouldn’t suddenly be surprised to see that The Dark Knight’s hopes for multiple Oscar nominations is “brightening” or “shaping up.” It’s always been a contender. Let’s break down its chances, category by category, after the jump:

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If John McCain doesn’t become the next President of the United States, perhaps he could take a completely different sort of gig, as The Penguin in the next Batman movie. Of course, there’s already a worthy candidate for that role, too, but if Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn’t want the job, Christopher Nolan should give it to the senator. That is, if Nolan actually decides to include the villain in his next installment, and so far it hasn’t seemed likely that he would.

The idea of McCain as The Penguin sparked from a campaign speech the presidential candidate gave last Friday in which he inadvertently channeled Burgess Meredith while congratulating his running mate, Sarah Palin, on her performance at the VP debate the night before. Since then, YouTubers galore have sampled the speech, whether using the audio to redub a scene from Batman Returns, as you can see in today’s Clip (and here), or intercutting the audio and video with footage from Meredith’s portrayal of The Penguin on the old Batman TV show, or simply drawing in the necessary accessories and props to make McCain look like Meredith’s Penguin.

The whole trend may have actually begun with a little joke on The Young Turks talk show. But how about it? Ehh? Throughout the Town Hall debate last night, while watching McCain waddle around that stage, I couldn’t get the Penguin thing out of my mind. He’s perfect for the part. Ehh?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a third installment of the live-action Scooby-Doo movie franchise begins shooting in Vancouver today. Unfortunately (hey, I thought the second one was a pretty faithful adaptation), the movie will be a direct-to-video release and all our favorite characters have been recast with unknowns. At least the voice of Scooby will now be performed by veteran voice actor Frank Welker, who has voiced the cartoon dog in tons of series and films and even worked on the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, for which he actually played “Freddy”.

Because there are likely few people talking about Scooby-Doo 3 and there are plenty of people instead discussing the possibilities surrounding the third installment in the Batman Begins-The Dark Knight series (such as who will play Catwoman, if the character is involved), here’s a clip from the animated classic Scooby-Doo Meets Batman that combines the two properties. Man, I’d sure love to see a live-action version of this. If only Heath Ledger’s Joker wore a tree log as part of a disguise. It might have been even better than his nurse uniform scenes.

The Dark Knight is hands down the best Batman movie yet, but has Christopher Nolan painted himself into a corner by using up the only viable Batman villains? Most of the Batman villains left are either too campy (the Penguin, the Ventriloquist), depend too much on flexible comic book logic (Clayface, Killer Croc), or are just watered-down versions of the Joker (the Riddler, the Mad Hatter).

Tim Burton’s Batman featured The Joker (Jack Nicholson) for good reason. The Clown Prince of Crime, always Batman’s most threatening foe, represents (among many things) an unwillingness to take human life seriously. In that moral void his vibrant personality explodes like a fireworks display of mania, menace, and eccentricity. The Joker is the calling card of chaos and evil at its sexiest. Batman isn’t the reason we watch Batman over and over again, the Joker is. Of course Michael Keaton brings gravitas to Batman, but let’s face it–as sweet as Batman is, he’s just not good company. Ever notice how passengers in the Batmobile feel like they’re at the end of a bad date? …Read more

I guess I will be seeing The Dark Knight no matter what, but this new video of “Rachel Dawes” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) endorsing “Harvey Dent” has me half-wanting to boycott the thing. While not entirely harmless, the clip is obnoxiously pointless, and it is written and acted poorly enough to feel like the opening of an SNL skit. I assume that Christopher Nolan didn’t have much to do with it, and I find viral marketing tactics like this to cheapen a film and do more harm than good. Who could watch this thing and honestly think it makes the Batman Begins sequel look appealing? Even if you’re smart enough to know the actual film won’t look like this, you might at least get the impression that Gyllenhaal’s performance here is a sampling of her portrayal of Dawes (previously played by Katie Holmes) in The Dark Knight.

And no, I’m not biased against Gyllenhaal. I do think she’s highly overrated, but she’s a decent actress most of the time (when she has more air, apparently). However, I do admit I already find this Harvey Dent political campaign-as-marketing campaign to be superfluous. It only continues to psyche up the geeks who are already psyched up anyway, making its an unnecessary cost to Warner Bros. And as happened on the road leading up to Cloverfield, my excitement for The Dark Knight is lately fluctuating between really pumped and really jaded. I shall now sit and wait for the backlash to the backlash.

There is so much going on these days in the marketing of The Dark Knight (see Chris Thilk’s most recent update/summary here), but Warner Bros. may be wasting a lot of time and money on its campaigns. If we’re to believe an AP story from yesterday, there’s already enough interest in the Batman Begins sequel coming from two separate directions: comic book fandom (”the magnitude of a comic-book franchise with an illustrious 70-year history”) and, of course, the cult of celebrity death (”arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.”).

The article highlights a number of posthumous film releases, including those of James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause and Giant), Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), Will Rogers (Steamboat Round the Bend), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), his son, Brandon Lee (The Crow), John Candy (Canadian Bacon and Wagon’s East!), Natalie Wood (Brainstorm), Carole Lombard (To Be or Not to Be), Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Clark Gable (The Misfits) and Aaliyah, whose Queen of the Damned is implied to have only been successful on account of the singer/actress’ accidental demise. However, none of these performers, the article argues, had the benefit of having such a blockbuster swan song as a Batman movie (coupled with the Terry Gilliam movie, of course, but Ledger’s actual final film is considerably less anticipated and so may be less notable). So certainly Ledger will be winning the contest for Biggest Posthumous Box Office.

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Yesterday, in response to David Gordon Green’s talent being (presumably) wasted on Pineapple Express, I brought you my picks for the 5 worst directorial sellouts of all time (or, as I should have titled it, 5 Worst Attempts at Mainstream Success). And now, as promised, are my picks for the best, because occasionally a great filmmaker can take a seemingly sellout gig and deliver a masterpiece.

1. (tie) The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974) - Everyone should know that Francis Ford Coppola didn’t want to make the first Godfather film. He wanted to make smaller movies, such as The Conversation, which he was able to make at Paramount only because he directed The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. I prefer the film he wanted to make, but there is no denying his first two Godfather films were worth Coppola’s time and, more importantly, ours. …Read more

Edgar Wright has been linked to an adaptation of the Marvel superhero Ant Man since before even Shaun of the Dead was made. Surprisingly, he’s still attached to the project, a feat that is rare in Hollywood. But since Ant Man is a lesser character in the Marvel Universe, there seems to be less of a rush to get him up on the big screen. However, last week Wright told Empire that he has at least completed a screenplay after all these years, and he is taking a meeting (undoubtedly with someone from either Marvel Studios or Paramount) about the movie this week. The writer-director, who last gave us Hot Fuzz, is still unsure what his next gig will be, though he seems to have it narrowed down to Ant Man and another comic adaptation titled Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, the plot of which sounds more in line with Wright’s penchant for comedic gore.

While I eagerly anticipate anything that Wright serves up, I’m especially interested in the Ant Man adaptation. In an interview with Moviehole last year, Wright mentioned that part of the project’s original appeal was the obscurity of the character. And I would have to agree that certainly it would be less stressful and more fun to adapt a comic without the same kind of fanbase as a Batman or X-Men. You could pretty much have free reign as far as what to do with him. It’s pretty much the opposite of Ang Lee trying to do something interesting with the Hulk, a comic book character that everyone is familiar with. Sure, there are times when you may have a popular property and an inventive filmmaker and it can work, as it did with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. But that was like a miracle. I’d hate for Edgar Wright to adapt a property that is on its own highly anticipated, because if it failed, it would be doubly disappointing. So, all I can do is hope that this supposed meeting goes well.